OKLAHOMA CITY — Two men on Oklahoma’s death row continue their fight to move their execution dates until more is known about the drug that will be used to kill them.
Clayton Lockett, 38, and Charles Warner, 46, are challenging a state law allowing the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to keep its supplier of lethal injection drugs secret.
After a dispute on which court is the proper venue to hear the case, the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday that is two-fold.
The court decided Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parish can hear the lawsuit, but can not issue a stay of execution as originally requested by the inmates’ attorneys.
Judge Parish will hear the case at 10 a.m. Thursday. Lockett is scheduled to die later that day at 6 p.m.
Attorneys for the men say the supreme court transferred the applications for a stay of execution to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
Under the current state law, information on how or where lethal injection drugs are manufactured is not required to be released.
The lawsuit questions the specific use of pentobarbital. Questions about the drug arose after it was administered to Michael Wilson, who yelled, “I can feel my whole body burning,” during his January execution.
Warner is scheduled for execution March 27.
